Red Wing, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Red Wing, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Red Wing lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Red Wing — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Red Wing — the short answer
Red Wing, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 22K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 22K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 4b is Red Wing's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Red Wing's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Red Wing
Each reading below is measured for Red Wing itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRed Wing runs about 187 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRed Wing sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Red Wing is in
Red Wing sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Red Wing's own centroid rather than borrowed from Goodhue County.
What Grows in Red Wing
Every plant below cleared Red Wing's own zone 4b and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Red Wing?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Red Wing
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Red Wing. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CARLISLE POWER TRANSMISSION PRODUCTS INCBrownfields · 800 ft
- CARLISLE POWER TRANSMISSION PRODUCTS INCToxics Release Inventory · 800 ft
- MACTECH INCBrownfields · 950 ft
- CENTRAL RESEARCH LABORATORIESBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CENTRAL RESEARCH LABORATORIESToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- GLOBAL REFRIGERANT TECHNOLOGIES INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- XCEL ENERGY - RED WING SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Xcel Energy - Red Wing Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MNDOT - RED WINGBrownfields · 2200 ft
- RED WING CABINETRYBrownfields · 2200 ft
- Riviera CabinetsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- RIVIERA CABINETSToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Red Wing's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Red Wing.
Total Sites
393
within ~10 miles of Red Wing
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Red Wing
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Red Wing
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Red Wing, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 144 sites within ~10 miles of Red Wing. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Red Wing
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Red Wing average
Your land is one point inside Red Wing
Everything above resolves to Red Wing as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 22K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Red Wing Average
Red Wing Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Red Wing
- ●One soil character for all of Red Wing
- ●Frost dates read at Red Wing's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Red Wing's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Red Wing
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Red Wing, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Red Wing averages can't show:
We read public map data around Red Wing — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Red Wing average
How we know this about Red Wing
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Red Wing’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Red Wing
When does frost risk typically end in Red Wing?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Red Wing typically lands around Apr 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 6.
When is the first frost in Red Wing?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Red Wing typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Red Wing?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Red Wing sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 5, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Red Wing?
The federal record around Red Wing is a meaningful one — 393 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (144), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Red Wing?
From about Sep 19 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Red Wing's scale — its 4b band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Red Wing's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Red Wing’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Red Wing's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 22,292 acres it covers and 393 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Red Wing's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Red Wing's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 19 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 393 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Red Wing, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Red Wing's boundary and the 22,292 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Red Wing's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Red Wing's 22,292 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Goodhue County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Goodhue County
- The growing challenges every Minnesota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Minnesota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Goodhue County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Red Wing's 22,292 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Red Wing you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 22,292 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Red Wing-wide figureread your own land →
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